How to clean Tar or Asphalt off a copper coin?

[Minrelica]

Any suggestions?

I often find wheat cents when detecting street tearouts and some of them are lodged in a big clump of tar or asphalt. I can generally just break the clump open with my hand but once the coin is free is still has sticky, tacky black residue on it. Any suggestions on how to clean these?

Tahnks, WIT -

 

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[wvwildman]

gas

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

Yep, gas.

 

[pat-tekker-cat]

Gas, or this stuff.........
Formula 88 cleaner and degreaser. They use it on the heavy machinery, spray it on, hose it off.
Formula88.com

I once had to clean road tack out of my dryer, I used alcohol and acetone. My friend had to do the same thing, but she used gasoline. It messed up her liver functions for over a year from breathing the fumes in an enclosed area(and she's a nurse and should have known better).

eta: baby oil will sludge that stuffs up too. it's just real icky and kinda nasty.

 

[Minrelica]

Well then... looks like I'm using gas

thanks, all

 

[Minrelica]

Gas, or this stuff.........
Formula 88 cleaner and degreaser. They use it on the heavy machinery, spray it on, hose it off.
Formula88.com

I once had to clean road tack out of my dryer, I used alcohol and acetone. My friend had to do the same thing, but she used gasoline. It messed up her liver functions for over a year from breathing the fumes in an enclosed area(and she's a nurse and should have known better).

eta: baby oil will sludge that stuffs up too. it's just real icky and kinda nasty.

I have several options to use but I wasn't sure if they would harm the copper or not.. I have heavy duty degreaser.. Thought about using PB Blaster, rubbing alcohol or even nail polish remover...

 

[usandthem]

WD-40.

 

[stefen]

WD-40.

At least try WD40 before you use other chemicals...

 

[Minrelica]

I agree.. Will try WD40 now..

 

[l.cutler]

Acetone and Xylene are about the only solvents that are considered safe to use on coins.

 

[sagittarius98]

I would recommend gas too, though WD-40 might do less harm to the coin. I only had this problem once (on a memorial cent), so I just used a grill brush and released it into circulation.

 

[H-2 CHARLIE]

WD-40 .. LEARNED THIS FROM A ROOFER

 

[Minrelica]

I used WD40 and it worked perfectly on the tar.. Came off with a Qtip and very little effort.. Only problem is that the date and back side are a bit toasty.



Undecided what to do next.. I'm just trying to get a good date on it.. (and experiment of course) 5 minutes of electrolysis? Hot Peroxide? Olive oil?

 

[cudamark]

You might try the acetone to see if any more crud will come off around the date. If that doesn't do anything, soak it in olive oil for a few days and try again with the toothpick and Q-tip. Peroxide and/or electrolysis would be my next choice if the first two don't yield a good result. From what I can see, it looks to be a 193-something. Anything newer that a 1934 would have virtually no collector value in that condition. A 1931S would be a nice find though!